Recap /
Star Trek S3 E2 "The Enterprise Incident"

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Spock and the Romulan Commander, engaging in what's considered in their respective cultures to be "doin' the nasty."

It's another day on the Enterprise, and Kirk's acting like he had an extra helping of bitch flakes for breakfast. This becomes especially evident when he orders the ship to fly straight into Romulan space, a direct violation of the peace treaty. Of course, they soon find themselves surrounded by Romulan ships demanding their surrender. Kirk tries to B.S. the (female) Romulan commander by saying it was all a big mistake due to equipment failure. Spock rats him out, saying it was deliberate, resulting in Kirk doing a passable impression of Achmed the Dead Terrorist. Bones comes aboard just in time to see Kirk attempt to carry out his threat, only to be thwarted by the Vulcan Death Grip (tm). "You're dead, Jim!"

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...Or is he?

This episode is notable for marking the on-air debut of the Klingon D-7 Battle Cruiser... being flown by the Romulans! In-story, this is briefly explained by Spock relaying a Starfleet Intelligence report that confirms that Romulans now have Klingon ships in their fleet. Although the ship was designed and used in "Elaan of Troyius", which was the second episode produced for the third season ("The Enterprise Incident" was the fourth), "Elaan" would be the thirteenth episode aired, after the D-7 appeared again in "Day of the Dove". The 2006 remastered series would retroactively add D-7s to earlier episodes such as "Errand of Mercy" and "The Trouble with Tribbles".

Tropes for this episode include:

2-D Space: The Enterprise is surrounded by three ships, which should still leave them free to go up or down. This is given a Lampshade Hanging (possibly unintentional?) in the remastered episode, when the Enterprise does exactly that.

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Blatant Lies: Kirk tells the Romulan commander that the Enterprise crossed the Neutral Zone because of a navigational error. She immediately calls bullshit.

Cannot Tell a Lie: Discussed. The Romulan Commander asks Spock if it's true that Vulcans are incapable of lying, and he replies that they are incapable of making statements that they know to be untrue, but are capable of selectively withholding the truth. He then proceeds to lie like a rug for the rest of the scene.

Captain's Log: The opening narration is a medical log read by Dr. McCoy, deviating from the norm.

Just Following Orders: The Romulan commander uses this as justification to not hold the Enterprise crew responsible for Kirk's transgression.

Leave No Survivors: The Romulan Commander demands that everyone on the Enterprise be destroyed, including herself.

Lensman Arms Race: Starfleet has to steal the cloaking device to keep the Balance of Power with the Romulans. Ironically it's revealed in TNG that Starfleet gave up their right to use cloaking devices as part of a peace treaty with the Romulans - possibly because of their cloak being stolen Romulan tech, although it's never directly stated.

Look Behind You: Kirk pulls this on a Romulan trying to stop him from taking the cloaking device.

Never Give the Captain a Straight Answer: McCoy calls Scotty, who's in acting command of the Enterprise, to sickbay, and refuses to explain in advance why. Justified in this case because he's being called down so he can be let into the conspiracy surrounding Kirk's fake death, which McCoy can hardly tell him over the intercom.

No Name Given: The Romulan Commander. Not even in the script is her name revealed.

Obfuscating Insanity: Kirk pretends to go off the deep end to explain why he ordered the ship into Romulan space. Spock gets the assist on that, as he tells the Romulan commander that Kirk has gone bonkers. McCoy verifies that as well.

Plug And Play Technology: The Romulan cloaking device is compatible with a Federation ship? Maybe Scotty has an adapter in his bag of tricks.

Ripped from the Headlines: D.C. Fontana's initial inspiration for this story and its title was the Pueblo incident which involved the capture of an American patrol boat, the USS Pueblo (AGER-2), by North Korean forces during The Vietnam War. The incident occurred on January 23, 1968, just two months before Fontana completed her first draft story outline.

It was really based on the Pueblo Incident, in the sense that here's this ship caught spying and they have to find a justification for their being there. Kirk's sanity is put on the line in terms of why they're there. Then, of course, they have to get out safely, preferably with the information they came for. Now that's not what happened with the Pueblo, but the Pueblo Incident kicked off this line of thinking in my mind.

What Happened to the Mouse?: The two Romulan guards that were beamed over in exchange for Kirk and Spock are presumably still in the brig at the end of the episode (one in his skivvies, since Kirk needed to borrow his uniform to sneak around on the Romulan ship).

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